Bette Klegon Halby

Bette Klegon Halby is a New York based abstract painter. She earned a BS in architecture and design and a BA in education from the University of Michigan in 1962. In 1963, she took courses at the University of California, Berkeley and California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. She earned an MFA in printmaking and fine art at Wayne State University in 1966. In 1980, she took film studies courses at the New School for Social Research. In 1990, she studied creative writing at New York University. From 2011 to 2015, she studied mixed media with Bruce Dorfman at the Art Students League.

Bette Klegon Halby extends the confines of two-dimensional space by breaking boundaries and playing opposites. The artist is inspired by the sensuality of forming and transforming within the magic of the materials and the alchemy of the colors. Klegon begins by painting on raw canvas within a narrow range of a specific color. For the artist, color is similar to choosing a word in a poem. It must resonate within her, evoke emotion and strike a chord. Klegon Halby's work is centered around spatial relationships; shapes that determine the way we move and mold the way we see. She is particularly concerned with the interstices, the spaces and places that stand between.

Klegon Halby has exhibited at numerous group and solo shows throughout the country, including: Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery in New York in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2015, the Rubin Museum of Art in New York in 2015, PO KIM Gallery in New York in 2015, the Hullaballoo Collective at the Armory Show in 2013 and 2014, Neustadter Gallery in Palm Beach, Florida in 2011, Hokin Gallery in Chicago in 1968, Van De Bovenkamp Gallery in New York in 1965, and the Detroit Art Institute in 1962. Klegon Halby is currently on the University of Michigan's Stamp School of Art and Design dean's advisory board.